“Amy, this is Chief Morgan,” Xandra said. “Chief, this is my sister Amy and my nephew Alex.”
“Chief,” Amy said as she rocked Alex in her arms.
“Hi. I just came by to thank Xandra for…”
“Saving your life?” she prompted with a small smile.
“Yeah. That.”
“Sorry for the disturbance,” she said, accepting the book Xandra handed to her.
“No apologies necessary.”
“And you were worried how well your first interaction with the cops would go,” Xandra teased her sister.
Amy’s lips quirked again before she pressed a kiss to the top of her son’s head and began to read.
“That’s another strategy. Laugh even when things aren’t funny,” Xandra said, handing me a fabric tote.
With Alex shooting looks of concern in my direction, I did my job and helped restore order, brick by brick.
When the room was clean and the story was over, I nodded to Amy and followed Xandra to the door. Alex got to his feet and slowly crossed to us. He was tall and broad-shouldered, and the grip of his hand on my arm was strong. But there was a sweet, little-boy smile on his face as he looked at my chest.
“He doesn’t believe in personal space,” Xandra warned in amusement.
Alex reached out and traced a finger over my badge, point to point to point. After he’d traced the star twice, he nodded and released me.
“Nice to meet you too, Alex,” I told him softly.
With my arms full, I gave the door two light kicks and waited.
It opened seconds later and everything in me went warm when I saw her. Lina wore leggings in a dark purple. Her sweater was a fleecy ivory that stopped an inch above the waist of her pants. A wide tie-dye headband held her hair back. She was barefoot.
“Evenin’，” I said, strolling across the threshold and dropping a kiss on her cheek. Piper followed me in and made a beeline for the couch.
“Well, hello. Uh, what’s all this?” she asked, closing the door behind me.
I ducked into the kitchen and dumped the bags on the counter. “Dinner,” I said.
She appeared in the doorway. “That doesn’t look like the Thai takeout I was going to order.”
“Not only beautiful but smart.” I plucked the wildflowers out of one of the grocery totes. “Vase?”
She gestured at the bare countertops. “Do I look like I have a vase lying around?”
“We’ll make do.” I started opening cabinet doors until I found an ugly plastic pitcher. I filled it with water, then shredded the plastic around the flowers. “Wildflowers because they reminded me of you,” I explained. And because the lily of the valley reminded me of my mom.
Lina shot me one of those complicated woman looks before giving in and burying her face in the flowers.
“This is very sweet of you. Sweet but unnecessary,” she said.
I noticed she was giving me a wide berth in the tiny space. It was cute that she thought she could rebuild those walls that had come down the night before.
“Mind gettin’ Pipe a bowl of water while I start the prep?”
She hesitated for a second, then opened a cabinet and found an empty takeout bowl. “You really don’t have to cook me dinner. I was a minute away from ordering food,” she said as she turned the water on in the sink.
“I had a long day,” I said conversationally as I pulled a bottle of wine, a corkscrew, and two glasses out of one of the bags. “And thanks to you, for the first time in a long while, I had the energy to deal with it.” I opened the wine with a pop and set the bottle aside.
“I heard something went down with one of your officers,” she admitted, setting the water dish on the floor. “Mrs. Tweedy said you caught one of your guys stealing counterfeit bills out of evidence after they spent it at a strip club.”
“I wish,” I said.
Piper appeared in the doorway with a sports bra in her mouth. She spit the bra out in the bowl and drank around it.
“Come on, Pipe. Stop eatin’ laundry.” I snatched up the bra. “I believe this is yours.”
Lina took the bra and threw it on the counter next to the broccoli.
“Then Neecey all but tackled me on the sidewalk in front of Dino’s,” Lina said, hopping up to perch on the counter. “She told me you headbutted that no-good Tate Dilton in the candy aisle of the grocery store.”
“I worry about this town’s language comprehension sometimes.”
She smirked. “Neecey also said she heard that you two wrestled into a canned soup pyramid and that the store manager found two cans of minestrone all the way over in the freezer section.”
“If you pour, I’ll tell you the real, much less eventful story.”
“Deal.”
I filled her in on my day. All of it. It felt good. To share a kitchen. To share my day. Lina seemed genuinely interested. She sat on the counter and we talked as I sautéed chicken, peppers, and onions. Piper joined us with an endless parade of toys and laundry.
I had to stop myself over a dozen times from moving between Lina’s legs, sending my hands sliding up her thighs, and going in for those pretty, red lips.
This connection I felt was real, tangible, and deep, but I didn’t know how deep it went for her. And I wasn’t about to scare her off with the level of my need for her.
“Why are there pajama pants in this bag? Is this some new age dessert I don’t know about?” she asked, poking around in the last tote.
“Yeah, about that,” I began.
“Nash.” My name was a gentle warning on those lips.
“I know last night was supposed to be a one-time thing. I know you took pity on me because I was a fucking mess.” I turned the burner off under the chicken and popped the lid on the pan before turning to her. “I also know I haven’t slept that well in…maybe ever.”
“We can’t keep doing this,” she said softly.
I wiped my hand on the dish towel I’d brought and then did what I’d been dying to do. I stepped between her knees and slid my hands up her thighs to rest on her hips.
Her hands planted on my shoulders and stayed there. Not pushing. Not pulling.
It was an intimate position. And I wanted more as my blood went from warm to simmering in a heartbeat.
“Look, I know it’s not fair to ask you. To make you responsible for this piece of my well-being. But I’m desperate. I need you, Angelina.”
“Why do you call me Angelina?”
I gave her hips a squeeze. “It’s your name.”
“I know that. But no one calls me Angelina.”
“It’s a beautiful name for a beautiful, complicated woman.”
“You’re quite the charmer. I’ll give you that. Flowers. Dinner. Sweetness. But how long are we going to play this game?”
“Baby, it’s not a game to me. This is my life. You are the only thing in my entire existence that makes me feel like I’ve got a shot at finding my way back. I don’t understand it. And frankly I don’t need to. All I know is I feel better when I’m touching you. When I woke up this morning, I didn’t feel like a ghost or a shadow. I felt good.”
“I felt…uh…good too,” she confessed, not quite meeting my eyes. “But we’re playing with fire here. I mean, sooner or later, you’re going to get overly attached and I’ll have to destroy your fragile man heart. Not to mention the fact that we basically woke up dry humping.”